How Taco Bell’s Nacho Fries Went From Test Kitchen to Your Stomach

That’s what Rene Pisciotti, one of the head chefs in the Taco Bell test kitchen has to say about the introduction of the restaurant chain’s Nacho Fries to the menu. And we have to say, we can’t disagree. TBell first announced earlier this month that it’d be serving up fried potato-y goodness, much to the excitement of people everywhere. And now, as of January 25, they’re here and available for $1.

The Taco Bell Nacho Fries are what you’d expect the fast food behemoth to do with the fast food staple. They’re flavored with Taco Bell’s signature bold seasoning and paired with the gooey-excellence of their nacho cheese. Diners can also order them up Supreme or Bell Grande, topping the fries with add-ons including beef, sour cream, pico de gallo, and even more nacho cheese.

So how’d fries even get on the menu? Well, they were in the works for a bit over a year at Taco Bell headquarters. They’ve long been available internationally at stores in Latin America, Asia, and Europe, but it took a while to figure out what the right fry would be for the North American customer base. Do they go crinkle cut or steak cuts, what shape, how heavy of a batter, how much seasoning? Rene explains that if they were serving the fries just by themselves with the nacho cheese, he would have opted for a thinner fritter. But since they’re also cookin’ up offerings with plenty of fixings, they went with a thicker design to hold all those tasty toppings.

"In the order of importance for consumers, it's gotta be crispy. It's gotta be hot, and it's gotta be well seasoned," Rene says. "So we developed a fry that we made sure was super crispy, stayed hot, and obviously is well seasoned."

There were also some bigger things to be sorted out, including supply chain and infrastructure challenges. Being such a ginormous company, they had to first off make sure that there’d even be enough potatoes available; tons of research went into ensuring that it was possible. They also had to get new fryers to serve up the fries.

And the culinary geniuses over at Taco Bell are pretty proud about being able to put their own spin on a menu item that’s available at pretty much any fast food competitor. They even poke some fun at the typical fries and ketchup combo in their Web of Fries marketing campaign. Because obviously if you're going to talk a big fry game, you have to play a big fry game. Which meant hours and hours perfecting the fries in the Taco Bell test kitchen and how they worked with the rest of their menu's components. Of course, it's also easy to jest about salt on fries with standard ketchup on the side when you're doing something pretty different from the rest of the fast food world: using the iconic Taco Bell seasoning that plenty of people have already grown to love with some melted cheese.

This editor got a chance to check out the famed test kitchen in person ahead of the Nacho Fries unveil. It’s a magical place that’s set up to have both the hot line — your rice, beans, signature beef, et al — and cold line —the shredded lettuce, cheese, and more — which Taco Bell employees use to build your menu favorites.

"This is the birthplace of any product that hits our menu. It starts here. The idea is not necessarily born in this kitchen, but obviously, the creation is," Rene says, who also happens to be the brains behind the Taco Bell Volcano Taco, RIP. "So we go through a lot of iterations of different products. We work on a lot of things that never leave this building, like 90% of the stuff that we do never leave this building. And that's an average success rate for probably any product in the marketplace, about one in ten launches. But it's a lot of fun, because along the way you're playing with food and you're working at a fun brand. So the dynamics of it are just really really cool."

The chefs gave me an opportunity to build my own creation, so I went for my take on a California Burrito. I heated up a tortilla, spread down some refried beans, added some ground beef, a hefty-but-well-arranged line of the new fries, topped with some nacho cheese, squirted a dash of sour cream, and a sprinkle of pico de gallo. Then, of course, I had to put it through their big pressers, the same thing that Crunchwrap Supremes get treated to before becoming truly delicious. And voila, my work of art was ready for consumption.

But if you think it's all fun and games and Doritos Locos Tacos 24/7 for Rene and the rest of the team that works on bringing new menu items to life, know that they have their fair share of meetings and paperwork like the rest of us.

"We're always juggling multiple projects. And they're all at different steps in the process. So some things are very early on. It's intense kitchen work," Rene says. "Some of them, our fries are about to launch national, so all of our effort is into insuring everything is gonna go smooth. So I don't know, how often do we play with food? About half the time?"

Thankfully, all that playtime led to getting a side of Nacho Fries with our Cheese Gordita Crunches.